Homecoming Reunion
Read Homecoming Reunion Online
Authors: Carolyne Aarsen
Local Boy Makes Good
After ten years, Garret Beck is back with something to prove—to himself, to Hartley Creek and especially to Larissa Weir’s family. Her father was once convinced Garret would never be successful enough. Now he’s investing in the local inn and working side by side with Larissa. Only problem is, she views the inn as
her
legacy. But seeing Hartley Creek through Larissa’s eyes soon awakens Garret to what he really wants. A new start—by her side—in the place that never stopped feeling like home.
“In all the time we were dating I never had a chance to take you anywhere nice.
“Let me at least make up for that by treating you to a nice dinner here.”
Larissa tilted her head, as if trying to see him from a new angle, her gaze holding his, a quizzical expression on her face.
“I’ve got paint spatters on my face.”
“I probably do, too,” he said, easing out a smile, surprised at the emotions wavering between them. “But I always wanted to do this for you. To let you know how special you were to me.” The words slipped out before he could stop them.
“Was I special to you?”
He recognized the hesitantly spoken question for what it was. Slipping into a new and different place, yet one tinged with the past.
“Yes. You...were.” He wanted to tell her that she still was.
But he wasn’t sure that was a place they should go.
Books by Carolyne Aarsen
Love Inspired
A Bride at Last
The Cowboy’s Bride
*
A Family-Style Christmas
*
A Mother at Heart
*
A Family at Last
A Hero for Kelsey
Twin Blessings
Toward Home
Love Is Patient
A Heart’s Refuge
Brought Together by Baby
A Silence in the Heart
Any Man of Mine
Yuletide Homecoming
Finally a Family
A Family for Luke
The Matchmaking Pact
Close to Home
Cattleman’s Courtship
Cowboy Daddy
The Baby Promise
†The Rancher’s Return
The Cowboy’s Lady
†Daddy Lessons
†Healing the Doctor’s Heart
†Homecoming Reunion
*Stealing Home
†Home to Hartley Creek
CAROLYNE AARSEN
and her husband, Richard, live on a small ranch in northern Alberta, where they have raised four children and numerous foster children, and are still raising cattle. Carolyne crafts her stories in an office with a large west-facing window through which she can watch the changing seasons while struggling to make her words obey.
Carolyne Aarsen
Homecoming Reunion
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
—Matthew 6:21
I’d like to dedicate this to my mother,
who teaches me every day where my true treasure is.
Contents
Chapter One
W
hat was she doing here?
Garret Beck let the door of Mug Shots, his favorite place in Hartley Creek, fall shut behind him as he caught sight of Larissa Weir in one corner of the coffee shop. She sat across the table from her Uncle Baxter, her hands shaping pictures as she spoke. Her green eyes sparkled with laughter. Her dark hair shimmered in the light from the window beside her.
The green dotted scarf she had draped over her white shirt enhanced the color of her eyes and matched the dangly earrings swinging against her cheek.
He looked at the floor and in spite of his emotions, he had to smile. Her shoes lay on their sides, her bare toes layered over each other.
She always did that. And he always teased her about being an original barefoot hippie.
He tried to rein in his errant heart, disappointed that after all these years she still could make him feel like a foolish, breathless teenager. Could still make him remember, too easily, how much she had meant to him.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple pushing against the knot of his silk tie. He stopped himself from reaching up and straightening it. From brushing the lapels of his suit jacket.
From trying to make himself look presentable in front of the only girl he had ever truly loved.
We were just kids then,
he reminded himself.
You’re no longer a broke lumber piler working for her dad.
And Larissa Weir chose her father over you.
“Hey, Carter, what can I get you?”
A bright, cheerful voice called out and Garret pulled his gaze away from Larissa to the woman standing behind the counter, wiping her hands on a towel, her graying hair partially covered in a pink bandanna, her wide smile like a beacon of welcome light.
Garret resisted the urge to play the mistaken identity game he and his twin brother, Carter, used to indulge in when they were younger. “I’m Garret,” he corrected her, adding a grin.
Kerry frowned, then her mouth fell open and she pressed a hand to her chest. “Oh, my goodness. It
is
you. I should have known. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Carter in a suit and tie.” She shook her head, taking a step back as if to get the full picture. “Look at you. All successful looking. How long are you back in town this time?”
“I have plans to stay for a while.” And those plans were the reason for his meeting with the man sitting across from Larissa. “Proud to say that Hartley Creek, British Columbia is now my new home,” he said with a grin.
“Or latest home,” Kerry said, flipping the towel over her shoulder. “Heard you’ve been working all over the world.”
“I’ve been here and there,” he admitted, trying to keep his focus on her as his Larissa’s light laugh tugged at his attention.
“So, now that you’re here, I imagine you’ll have your usual oversize coffee?” Kerry asked, grabbing a large mug and filling it up even before he could give his order. “Garret?” she prompted when he didn’t answer.
Garret gave himself a mental shake, turning back to Kerry. “Of course. Need all the caffeine I can ingest,” he replied pulling his wallet out of his suit jacket.
Kerry took his money, handed him his coffee and, as if sensing the reason for his distraction, gave him a wink along with his change. “Glad to see you back. I know your grandmother and cousins missed you, not to mention Carter.”
He gave Kerry his full attention as he dropped change in the till. It was dangerous to be seen mooning over his ex in this venue. Facebook and Twitter had nothing on what he and his brother, Carter, jokingly called The Mug Shots Messaging Service. Anything spoken in the coffee shop traveled around Hartley Creek quicker than a sneeze.
“I’ve missed them too,” he said. Then he risked another glance at Larissa and the man sitting across from her. Had Larissa been one of the people who missed him?
Garret brushed aside the pointless question, took a steadying breath as he picked up the hot mug of coffee. He walked with measured steps across the wooden floor to the table where Larissa and her uncle sat.
“...so let me know how that works out,” Baxter was saying. “We can discuss it later.”
Larissa nodded, her hair slipping over her face as she bent her head and scribbled some notes on the papers lying on the table in front of her.
Baxter Lincoln sat back, glancing around as Garret approached.
Garret knew the precise moment Baxter caught his gaze.
His gray eyes blinked then his glance flew first to his niece sitting across from him, then to the Rolex strapped to his wrist.
Yes, I’m early,
Garret wanted to say. And he guessed Larissa was supposed to have been gone before Garret had arrived.
Garret gave Baxter a tight smile freezing it in place when Larissa looked up at her uncle, frowning at his expression. She followed the direction of Baxter’s gaze.
As her eyes met his, alarm swept across her beautiful features and her pen clattered to the table.
However, Larissa was truly her father’s daughter, so her expression reverted quickly to bland politeness. Her smile reappeared, a shadow of its previous incarnation.
“Hello, Garret. I heard you were back in town,” she said, her voice as neutral as her facial expression as she picked up her pen.
“I didn’t expect you for another fifteen minutes,” Baxter put in, his voice taking on an excessively hearty tone.
Garret gave Larissa a curt nod, acknowledging her greeting, then dragged his gaze away from the woman who had once been the focus of his entire life and turned back to her uncle.
“Thought I’d enjoy Kerry’s legendary coffee before our meeting,” he said, pleased at how casual his voice came out.
“Of course. That’s great,” Baxter said, twisting his watch around his wrist. “Glad you could make it.” He got up and pulled a chair over to the empty end of their table.
Garret wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t relish the idea of sitting with Larissa, especially when it looked as if she and her uncle were discussing business. But to ignore the gesture would look rude.
Besides, the hot mug grew heavy in his hand.
“You go ahead and sit down,” Larissa said quietly, gathering up her papers and tapping them on the table. “I should get going anyway.”
The coolness of her tone accompanied by her polite smile unsettled him. Especially here in Mug Shots, the place where he and Larissa spent so much time when they were dating. The place he had first told her he loved her.
Then she looked up at him again and he caught the fleeting glow of anger in the depths of her eyes.
His own back stiffened in response as he set his mug on the table.
Why did she have any right to be angry with him? She was the one who refused to come with him ten years ago.
Silence, rife with old emotions, rose up between them.
The fact disappointed and depressed him. He thought he had long moved on. He knew she had. Her silence after he left town told him clearly whom she had chosen over him.
Her father.
She looked away, breaking the connection.
“I’ve got to talk to Mia about some flowers and then I should get back to the inn,” Larissa told her uncle. “Will you be coming there after?”
Baxter shook his head no. “We’ll have to finish up tomorrow.”
Larissa nodded, then bent over and picked up her briefcase, slipping the papers inside, followed by the laptop she had sitting on the table as well.